[10462] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FINS
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Public-Access Computer Systems For)
Mon Jul 29 21:04:38 1996
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 15:34:04 -0500 (CDT)
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: Strenuous Liberty
FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE
Vol IV, Issue No. 15 (120 lines) July 29, 1996
CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP":
Strenuous Liberty
By Vigdor Schreibman
Let me restate the awful nature of the existing situation,
to get at causes and remedies. The public debt of the United
States increased by $3-trillion dollars since 1980. This came
about, one may reasonably conclude from the public record, by
public policies, which corruptly serve the top 1-percent,
super rich American families and corporations [Fins-4-14].
The servitude of paying this debt is now being force upon the
other 99-percent of American families, yet there is no clear
complaint or vigorous resistance from the people.
It is often the case in nations grown corrupt that people,
"love bondage more than liberty--bondage with ease than
strenuous liberty," as John Milton wrote in his heroic poem
"Samson Agoniste" (1671). This is a self-imposed constraint
on public volition. In our time supported by mass media
propaganda systems, which are seductive and coercive, such
constraints have brought the United States to a state of
obscene inequity in the distribution of wealth and income.
Obviously, false assumptions supporting this condition may
be identified and removed [Fins-4.14], together with
exploration of creative alternatives by willing citizens
[Fins-4-10]. This is the way to surprising leaps forward
[Ackoff, 1994]. Who will offer that leaderhip?
Certainly not the two major political parties serving the
nation--Republicans and Democrats--who are themselves the main
causes of the corrupt existing situation. Both parties have
fallen captive to the monopoly capitalist mega-corporations,
governed to maximize profits at the expense of society-at-
large.
The major political parties thus offer grossly inadequate
political "representation" of citizens' causes, just as
advocacy for the public good is without fair access to the
media in the competition of ideas. One may certainly look to
new political parties and public interest advocacy groups,
which are sprouting up like daisies these day, to overcome the
corruption plaguing society. However, everyone in society
swims in the same sea of morality.
Citizens retain the sovereign power to elect a government of
their choice, but must inevitable look to the archetypical
hero for leadership, someone who can violate with impunity the
established norms and rules and rise above the nation grown
corrupt. Woe to the hero, who must face the worst situation
of all, as Milton (and many other) have observed:
But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty--
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty--
And to despise, or envy, or suspect,
Whom God hath of his special favor raised
As their deliverer? If he aught begin,
how frequent to desert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?
Where, then, are America's heros able and willing to
tolerate "ingratitude on worthiest deeds?" One such
individual. I know, who has the irrevocable commitment to
"Strenuous Liberty," is Bernadine E. Abbott Hoduski.
Bernadine is a Government Information Advisor, now living in
Helena, Montana <ber@initco.net>.
The cause of public information, which Hoduski serves, is
the lifeblood of democracy, organized around some 1400
depository libraries located in every Congressional district
throughout the nation. Nevertheless the role of public
information, as a free public good is often brought into
conflict with its role as a private commodity, and the public
policy dividing line is often ill-defined [Fins-PaN-01].
This conflict is now threatening the continued viability of
the depository library program [Fins-4-09]. The cause of
maintaining public information as a free public good, with
libraries and librarians at its core, should be the cause of
every American. All public interest advocacy should be
organized, in significant part, around the topic of "Democracy
and Federal Depository Libraries."
Hoduski, is particularly well situated to be a public
information leader. She served as professional staff member
at the US Congress, Joint Committee on Printing, from 1974 to
1995. She is the author of "Democracy in America Is Best
Served by a Multiformat Federal Depository Library Program,"
23 Journal of Government Information (May/June 1996): pp. 241-
252, and currently writing a book on political advocacy.
The JGI article includes a *CALL TO ACTION* written in
simple and direct language, with the subtle political
intelligence of a real pro. It could well be the catalyst for
democracy that Americans of all ages have been looking for.
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